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cheap is better

i believe the best way to cut open an oil drum is to use some method that doesnt create sparks. I always cut them open with my cheapy little harbor freight air powered sheet metal shear. All it requires is a quarter inch pilot hole and an air line. very neat very clean and in some cases the oil in th drum helps the cut move a little faster. Ive made probably a hundred Q pits out of 55 gal tranny fluid drums and havent had one explode yet.

No sparks sounds like a good option. I don't have an air shear (I'd love to get one though) but I do have a jigsaw. I don't suppose that would be 100% spark free but I think after a good wash out with oil cutting soap it will be plenty safe.
Thanks again. I'll be sure to post pics when it's up and running.

mill3rman3 lets see some pic's. i got a few barrels to play with.jonsam
I don't have an air shear (I'd love to get one though)
you could get a cheap nibbler at HF for this as the barrels are thin it should be fine. i got one that runs off a drill that has cut much thicker stuff.

thanks for the help
......or..........
hope i helped feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.james@newyorkmetalart.comsummer is here, plant a tree. if you don't have space or time to plant one sponsor some one else to plant one for you. a tree is an investment in our planet, help it out.
JAMES

When cutting vegetable oil drums....

I, like yourself, needed to cut open an 55 gallon drum that contained vegetable oil (soybean oil in this case). Here is some of the pertinent information I gleaned reflecting what is mentionned on an MSDS sheet for Soybean and almond oil.

First you need to know what is the flash point
The flash point of a volatile liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.
For soybean oil, it's 367 F (186 oC) and almond oil, it's greater than 400 F (204 oC)
(Compare this to 122 F (49 oC) for WD-40 - you'll hit the flashpoint on a scorching summer day)!!
Thus, if you are planning on cutting an veg-oil drum in which the oil is heated to at least 367 F, it is likely that volatile vapours will be generated and that sparks could very well cause an explosion.

As is obvious from the comparison mentionned earlier, vegetable oil, is not as easily combustible in normal conditions as WD-40.
However, as we have seen from the information provided above, if the conditions are right, you could set off an explosion, yes, even with vegetable oil. (A student just died in a oil-drum-cutting exercise at a local highschool in Ottawa, Canada. I can't speculate, but from the information, this is not an accident, but a preventable occurence.)

What I did to ensure the dangerous conditions were not met while cutting my vegetable oil drum were as follows..

Pour out any remaining oil and discard it appropriately.
Wash the veg-oil out with dishsoap and warm water (once or twice)
Rinse several times.
Cut-pilot holes with drill
cut out desired shape with a Reciprocating saw (little or no sparks).
Presto! you have your cut out veg-oil drum.
I have even welded on such a prepared drum as well without incident.
(But there was no oil to create vapours + the vapours would not have been confined as there was a gaping hole in the drum at this point)
But again, I stress that this was with what I believe to be a properly prepared metal container that did not contain an extremely volatile liquid in the first place.

Everything changes if you are dealing with something other than vegetable oil.
Figure out how to do it properly or don't do it at all.

I wouldn't do it.

There are places that recycle 55gal drums, they steam clean them and then they heat them and hold them at high temp for a set period of time to burn out residuals. You can buy a drum from them for about $8 to $10 around here. Why cut a drum your not sure about when you can buy one of theres. I personally know of two guy killed by 55gal drums and one of them was just using the thing as a bench.

hey man some pics or your setup plan for this would be a great place for me to start only difference is my barrel used to contain axle grease the up side is this eliminates cleaning because the grease is in a plastic liner the down side is i have to seal the end with the 2 bungs because it comes completely off. My idea was to make a grill/smoker and was looking for a way to accomplish this